All too often, long-time employees, who have witnessed their employer terminate different workers over the year, have a pretty good idea when their employer is trying to get rid of them as well for because of their age (or for another unlawful, discriminatory reason). Here are a few important things you should keep in mind if you believe that your employer is trying push you out of the company due to age discrimination or any other type of discrimination.
Bear in mind that there is generally nothing you can do to physically prevent your employer from terminating you for one reason or another, or for no reason, if that’s what they are determined to do. The only thing you can and in many cases should do is keep track and gather any type of evidence that will later, if and when you are terminated, help you prove that the reason for your termination was unlawful. This will provide you with greater leverage to negotiate higher severance or have the option of pursuing legal action against that employer.
This type of evidence includes anything that your management says or does that would suggest that they are unhappy about your age, and that they wish they had someone younger in your position or they wished that they had a younger workforce in general. Specific examples of this discriminatory activity include asking you when you are planning to retire, telling you that you are too slow and your ways of thinking are outdated, wishing that the company had more “fresh blood”, and calling by by an ageist nickname such as “dad” or “grandpa”. Creating a lot of such activity of who said something like this to you, when, where, under what circumstances, and who else was present at the time the statement was made can be of critical importance in any type of later employment separation negotiations or litigation.
In some cases it’s worth “striking” first and filing a complain for discrimination while you are still employed with that company, if you have reasonable basis for believing that you are being discrimination. “Reasonable” means more than just your intuition telling you that something is not right. Whether it’s good idea to file that type of complaint earlier than alter depends on the specific circumstances of your situation. To make the right decision about this, you should certainly consult an experience employment attorney, with whom you can together determine the best course of action for you, while you are still employed with that employer.